Georgia Tech researchers developed SWANS (Smart Wireless Autonomous Networking System) to enable communication between medical implants through body tissue instead of radio waves. Current implants using Bluetooth or NFC suffer from power drain—cutting battery life by up to 90%—poor signal attenuation in tissue, and bulky antennas requiring surgical insertion. SWANS mimics the nervous system, using ionic conduction to transmit signals.
The system consists of a wearable hub with a flexible circuit board, stainless-steel microneedle patches, and syringe-injectable implants each containing sensors or actuators. When the hub emits voltage pulses up to 12 volts, they create electric fields that spread through tissue, with implants responding only to specific pulse combinations via threshold-sensitive transistors. This passive design extends battery life significantly.
While similar FDA-cleared systems like Abilify My Cite exist, SWANS enables multi-device networking unlike the two-device limit of existing solutions.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing